Nostalgia and Broken Promises
by envy.and.pride
Summary: SasoSaku. Sequel to My Cherry Blossom, My Little Doll. Multichapter. Something has been set in motion that can't be stopped, something larger than a pair of lovers, hiding in the dark. Their story, however, is an epic as great as the grand schemes afoot.
1. Chapter 1

_Nostalgia and Broken Promises_

**This is the first chapter of the sequel to My Cherry Blossom, My Little doll. You should probably read that first or else you won't get this one.**

**Hope you enjoy the new one, and I hope it doesn't let the original down.**

Forget?

How could she forget.

He was in her mind forever now.

Even after three years.

Three long years of waiting in the darkness.

Three years of growing cold by the open window.

Three years of loneliness.

"A-Akatsuki?" The single word rang out through the silent office like the final toll of an ominous bell.

The word, to Sakura, seemed to make the air thicken and curdle around her, making it hard to breathe.

"Yes I know with Naruto in your group its dangerous, but you three are the best jounin we have. And this is going to be a dangerous mission."

It wasn't the danger Sakura was scared of.

It was him.

How could she possibly meet in battle with the notorious S-rank criminals when _he _was one of them?

"I know we can't take any chances, as they seem to be mobilising around Konoha again, but shouldn't this be a mission for ANBU?"

Tsunade snorted with contempt. "Sakura, you know that Team Kakashi is probably on par with most in ANBU. Its only a matter of time before you and Naruto are recommended for it. I think you need more of a challenge."

Truthfully, Sakura found her dull monotonous work at the hospital boring, and ached for real action. But preferably not within 100 miles of Akatsuki.

If she saw Sasori, the flame-haired puppet master of Sunagakure, could she trust herself to do the mission as planned, kill him if needed, incapacitate him at the least.

But she couldn't let her teacher and master down, couldn't show her weakness, and most of all, she couldn't show that she had any sort of contact with Akatsuki.

"Ok. I guess I could."

It would be a test. She could do it.

Three years was a long time.

Passion cooled to freezing point while hatred simmered relentlessly.

She was finished with him. He was gone from her heart, if not from her head.

At least, that's what Sakura told herself.

"I'll kill those Akatsuki bastards this time!" Naruto told Sakura, punching his fist into his open palm, flecks of bloody crimson appearing in his electric blue eyes as Sakura told him of their latest mission.

"Only if we are confronted." She reminded him, her voice subdued, but the vivid-haired kunoichi didn't think he really heard her words.

Or the fear hidden just behind their shallow barrier either, for that matter. He was caught up in revenge.

The back of Sakura's neck prickled and she swung her head around behind her, though she knew she would see no one there. The sensation was disturbingly familiar.

_Déjà vu?_

The dark presence invaded her space, pressing in on her, squeezing the air out of her lungs. It was a feeling of dread like in the Hokage's office when she was given her mission.

"Sakura?" She came back to earth with a jolt as the blonde boy looked at her, concern in his once again entirely blue eyes.

"Are you... alright?"

She swallowed her apprehension, but still it wouldn't leave her.

"I'm fine." Sakura lied blatantly. She had learned throughout her time as a jounin never to give away your emotions. They could and would be used against you if you were foolish enough to display your feelings so openly.

Sakura shivered inwardly. Time had hardened her.

It hadn't changed one bit, Konoha. But Sakura loved it that way. It was one of the only things she really still loved. True, she had a boyfriend, a sweet attractive jounin that she met on a mission one day. But who was she trying to kid? What was he but a poor attempt at trying to show herself that she was over Sasori. After a year with him however, it would be a lie to say she felt nothing for him.

Maybe she had forced herself to love him.

The sky darkened dramatically as she walked home, and afternoon turned to night quicker than she had ever seen. Ominous thunderclouds grew steadily in the direction she walked in. The streetlights flickered eerily above her head for a moment before turning on with an electric hum, flooding small patches of the street with their harsh white light. Sakura hurried her pace as she saw, or just imagined shapes shifting in the shadows. It really set her nerves on edge, and she was jumpy for the first time in many years.

Usually, she knew what she was against, be it a petty thief or S-class criminal, but this time, the sense of foreboding had an eerie, almost supernatural feel about it that she just couldn't shake.

Sakura started jogging, staring at the floor so that her nervousness didn't show to any invisible onlookers.

She finally arrived back at her own house, staring at her with black eyes of cold glass. That was strange… She thought her boyfriend would be there, waiting for her as usual. But all the windows were as darkened and uninviting as an icy black lake in the winter.

Sakura shrugged, making up an excuse in her mind, and pushing the reason she half hoped and half feared was true to the back of her mind.

She dug for the keys deep inside her pocket, feeling for the cold, slightly serrated metal edge on them.

"Shit…" Sakura breathed to herself as a compete search of all her pockets turned out fruitless. "I left them…"

She didn't want to fumble around the side of the house where the spare was hidden in the dark. In exasperation, she kicked at the door, and to her surprise it flew open, and Sakura flinched as it banged against the wall.

"What the?" Sakura spotted her boyfriend in the living room and walked over to him.

"Sorry I didn't realise you were here…" The pink haired kunoichi trailed off as she realised that her partner wasn't listening to her. His eyes were closed peacefully and Sakura strained her ears to hear any sign of life. Her breathing made the only noise in the complete stillness of the eerie feeling house.

Suddenly the feeling doubled, making Sakura feel nauseated and suffocated. The new one was different. Strangely familiar yet just as ominous as the other.

A noise came from the stairs leading to the upper level and her bedroom, a soft creak of the floorboards, barely audible but all the more foreboding.

She left the unconscious man on the lounge and slunk off towards the noise, her heart beating faster at every dark shape that loomed at her from the shadows. It wasn't like her, being afraid like this, but her imagination was running away with her.

The sound came again, louder, closer, making Sakura jump with fright.

She came into her bedroom, keeping her body pressed flat along the wall to avoid the sea of silvery shining moonlight that spilled onto the middle of her floor from the window.

The open window.

It was wide open, blowing its chilly breath into the wide room while the thin curtains were disturbed from their stillness.

Hidden in the darkness, Sakura scoured the room with her eyes, searching for _him._ It was him. It had to be.

It proved useless, either they- _he- _wasn't still in there, or he had hidden well.

Sakura naïvely decided, partly to assert herself, that no one could hide themselves so thoroughly, and so it was safe in her room.

She crossed the brightly lit patch in the middle in a few anxious strides and slammed the window shut, relaxing and breathing out a sigh of relief as she did so, turning and leaning her back against the pane, slightly slumped.

It was only when she tried to reach up to scratch a spot on her shoulder that she realized that she couldn't move.

Something had immobilised her.

Someone.

With strings that latched onto her, and glowed faintly in the moonlit room.

"You said you'd come back." Before she could even see him, tears came to Sakura's eyes. "You never did."

"You said you'd wait. It may have been a long time, but I have come back now. You were just impatient. I won't forget your _lover_ downstairs." The look of hatred on Sasori's handsome face made Sakura cower inwardly.

"He isn't…?"

"Dead? No. Sleeping." He scowled.

"You coming back… It all… it's like déjà vu…" Sakura voiced her feelings.

"More like nostalgia to me." He smirked at her, and Sakura felt she recognised him more as the person who loved her. That arrogant and cocky yet sweet and gentle person.

"Nostalgia and broken promises…" She muttered to herself, looking back towards Sasori, sadness shown with such intricacy in her soulful emerald eyes.

**Aha cliffhanger! I love it.**

**This one is going to be hopefully a lot better than My Cherry Blossom. I've planned it all out, and for once I know how I'm going to end it. It'll be longer, maybe sadder, bigger, and darker than Cherry Blossom, and I hope you enjoy the rest!**

**s2- Envy**


	2. Chapter 2

Nostalgia and Broken Promises- Chapter 2

**Here you go, new chapter. I think its all right, but I guess that's really for you to judge. **

**Enjoy!**

How could she have been so stupid? Sasori was part of the Akatsuki, he could hide anywhere. It would be a simple task for him to disguise his breathing, his heartbeat and chakra. How had she thought he wasn't there?

"Déjà vu." Sasori repeated. "The way you say it makes it sound like you think it's a bad thing. Or have you _moved on_?" He said it mockingly, reading her like a book. He had seen past her flimsy pretences and into her heart. Just like him.

"Yes. I have a life away from you. I don't need you. I'm happy." Her tone of voice completely belied the words she bravely spoke.

Sasori laughed softly, ominously and went on, ignoring her previous comment. "I've come for you, and now you can come with me. Leave your old life behind."

Sakura took a breath in, looking away from Sasori as his almost hypnotic gaze bored into her. "No." She wished she could move. Even a hand, one finger, could be used to throw a kunai at him and at least distract him. Many plans formed in her mind, but all were focused on _if she could move._

He advanced on her, slowly yet surely, his darkness swallowing the moonlight like a storm cloud devouring the clear blue sky. Yet all he did was lift his hand up and place it on her face, his touch light and lingering as he forced her to look at him. His other hand went to her shoulder and Sakura stared at him.

"Warm… You're warm…" His hand was warm and soft, like a normal person, not like the hard, cold puppet he had become.

"We found a way, and I sacrificed my immortality. What's the point of a long life if you can't feel the things that make it worthwhile? Like the touch of skin on skin…" He was softly spoken as always, speaking in that low whisper that made Sakura shiver. "See? I did something for you. Wouldn't you return the favour?"

"No." She said defiantly once more, wondering what her was going to do. It seemed unlikely that he would accept her refusal and just leave her be.

"No?" A glint appeared in his eye, indecipherable, yet it scared Sakura.

"I can't abandon my village. I can't run away, or they'll hate me. And if I run away with you, I can never come back."

"Its too late."

The simple sentence sent chills down Sakura's spine. "What are you talking about? I haven't done anything."

"Ha." He sounded spiteful, and Sakura wondered what had happened to the love they had once shared. "_You_ haven't done anything."

"What did you do?" Sakura's eyes widened in fright, fearing for her friends, her village.

He just smirked at her.

"What did you do?!" She shouted, her anger released by this vague threat.

"Nothing. I just told them." He said, smirking.

"Told _them_? Who's them? What did you tell them?" Her voice started loud but failed her half way through.

"I told your village about what happened three years ago, what really happened to Sasori, their captive criminal. All anonymously of course. And then I provided them with an overwhelming amount of evidence. Now you know how it feels."

"How it feels to be a missing-nin." His smirk widened and, had she been able to move, Sakura would have slapped him. Had she thought about what he said she would have cried. But her sadness was being displaced by anger, his goading and spiteful ways pushing her to her limit.

"If you think that's going to make me leave, you're wrong!" She shouted. "Leave me be." Surely he wouldn't have condemned himself, when he was safe with everyone presuming that he was already dead. It must have been a bluff.

"I don't know why you suddenly came back, after leaving me alone for so long, but I know one thing. I don't love you anymore."

"Are you sure?" He asked, danger imminent in his voice.

"I'm staying. Even if my own village wants to kill me, I'll convince them otherwise."

Slowly, in response to this, Sasori's arms snaked around her, in a tender embrace. Sakura stared, wondering what he was doing. Saying goodbye?

She suddenly felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck, and saw a needle gleaming bright in the moonlight, sticking out of the tender skin on her neck.

Sakura felt her muscles let go and relax almost instantly. Her more conscious brain freaked at what he was doing to her, while her subconscious medic listed all the poisons he could have infected her with, and how to combat them.

_Bastard. _Sakura tried to speak the words that were in her mind but the paralysing liquid wouldn't let the words past her mind, and all that came out was air.

_Let go of me! _She screamed inside her head as Sasori picked her up, carrying her over his shoulder like a sack as she hung like a dead weight.

Sakura stopped trying to work her limply unresponsive muscles and instead focused her chakra, moving it to the affected part of her brain where she hoped to concentrate the poison. If she did that, and expelled the poison, she would regain some mobility and speech.

She was vaguely aware of leaving the outskirts of Konoha as she reasoned with the challenge of healing her damaged mind without the use of her hands. As the first tree zipped past her head, Sakura had isolated the small amount of poison that flowed through the blood in her brain.

Sasori turned his head towards her limp body, sensing the unusual chakra patterns, but dismissed it, concentrating on finding the hidden base of the Akatsuki.

After concentrating the small amount of potent poison, Sakura worked on pushing it out of the system, retracing the route it took to infect her brain in the first place. Eventually she felt a slight tickle on her neck as the warm liquid trickled out of the wound on her neck, accompanied by a rivulet of dark crimson blood that ran down to mingle with her already sweat-dampened pink hair.

Experimenting with her mobility, she moved her fingers and toes minutely, then, please with the results, started snaking her left hand down to the kunai holster on her leg, while willing the rest of her body to stay how it was previously.

Once the cold, hard steel was in her hand, she brought it up quickly, and stabbed it into the point in Sasori's neck that would kill him instantly. Or at least she would have, had she not hesitated that fraction if a second.

Now, instead, she was standing on a massive tree branch, far away from the ground, with her thwarted kunai in her hand, and her hand in Sasori's.

She couldn't decide what he looked, angry or amused, but it was often so similar with him.

"Just tell me what's going on!" Sakura demanded of him, wrenching her hand out of his grip. "What do you want with me, and where are you taking me?"

"I'm in danger." He didn't have to tell her, but maybe it was as a sign he could be trusted. Or maybe he was lying through his teeth.

"The other Akatsuki are dangerously close to finding out about us, which would mean we both would be killed."

"But you told the whole of Konoha!" She argued, enraged by how easily he gave her away, just so he wouldn't be given away himself.

"Ha. You're like your whole village, feeling safe in your arrogance. They can't find us." He scoffed, making her even angrier. A moment of tense silence followed, and both their tempers' simmered dangerously.

"So how has you being in danger got to do with me?" Sakura asked after a moments thought, speaking through gritted teeth.

"Well when I last came to see you in Konoha…" The sentence made Sakura look away sadly. Everything had disintegrated since then, unlikely to be repaired. "When I last came, I told them that the reason I kept going into the village was to… was to kill you."

The entire forest was silent in the latest hours of the night, and even more so as Sasori's last words faded quickly into the night.

"You were going to kill me?" Sakura hid her face from him as tears formed in her eyes.

"No…" It was difficult for him to explain. "I only told them that so I could keep visiting you. The only problem is, that they now expect you to be dead. The other day, you were spotted, alive and well, by Zetsu…" Sakura was starting to understand the situation a whole lot better now.

"It's his word against mine, and for the moment I seem more trustworthy in the eyes of my fellow members, but if someone else saw you, we'd both be dead."

"Why was I to be killed in the first place?" Sakura asked, fear permeating her angry demeanour.

"You were an obstacle that needed to be taken out before we could get to Kyuubi." He said airily, as if he didn't care about this side of things.

"And now I am out of the picture…" A tear escaped from her eye and ran down her cheek, leaving a line of moisture on the smooth skin. "And Naruto is going to die." More tears ran down her cheeks as she couldn't stop them. "I suppose this is my only alternative to death, but to everyone who knew me in Konoha, I am dead…"

She wiped her tears away angrily with the back of one hand and glared at Sasori with bloodshot eyes, before bolting off in the direction they had come from. She didn't care if she was now a criminal in the eyes of her village, she could prove Sasori's evidence wrong if she wanted.

Suddenly she felt the cold caress of steel around her midriff, gentle as a human embrace. She looked down and noticed Sasori's metal 'tail' around her, pulling her back to him as her smirked at her.

Sakura stared at him fearfully, as she hung suspended hundreds of feet above the forest floor, held captive by Sasori.

"I thought you said you were a human again…" She said in a small voice as he continued to smirk at her.

"I kept some of the more useful modifications." He laughed at her surprise and brought her closer to him.

"What's going to happen to Naruto?" Sakura asked after a moments silence.

"Easy. He dies and we get the last Bijuu." Sasori sounded bored to be back to this subject, as if Naruto was of no concern to him.

"Last?" She asked. "You have others?"

"All of them." Sasori confirmed. "Naruto is proving hard to get to however."

"But now you have me out of your way. Now I'm out of the way, and out of sight. It's win-win for you isn't it?"

Sasori laughed and nodded, but went on with a sly smile. "But if you don't want to stay with me you don't have to."

"Really?" Sakura's eyes widened as hope flooded her mind.

"I don't have to pretend you're dead if you really are…" He uttered a low laugh, which sent chills down her spine.

"I don't love you anymore." She said, glaring angrily at him.

Sakura uttered a small gasp as she felt a burning pain in her stomach, and looked down, seeing the sharp point had pierced through her stomach, the very end of it reappearing out of her lower back.

"That's for attempting to replace me." Sasori said, his anger close behind his arrogant demeanour.

A trickle of blood ran down from her mouth, as a larger amount fell through the forest canopy to mingle with the dirt on the ground below.

She heard his laughter once again as she was brought up against him, and he planted a soft kiss on her cherry lips. As her vision started to fade, Sakura reached out feebly, holding him weakly with her disappearing strength. Even when he was being such a bastard, she knew she couldn't help but love him.

**This chapter makes me sad. Why can't they love each other again?! What is going to happen next?**

**Ah well. You'll just have to keep reading to find out.**

**Oh yes, I'm going to leave Sakura's boyfriend unnamed, or at least for the moment, because I don't want to get other pairings mixed up in this, nor do I care much for OCs. So yeh… Mystery guy.**

**Maybe he comes back into the story. I dunno. I can't remember.**

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**s2- Envy**


	3. Chapter 3

Nostalgia and Broken Promises- Chapter 3

Sakura woke up in a cold room on a cold floor, nothing but the lingering memory of a tender embrace to keep her warm. Cold stones pressed into her back as she moved slightly, her muscles cramped from sleeping on a hard surface for god knows how long.

She took in a deep breath and looked around at the room she had spent the night in. Or maybe longer. It was almost impossible to tell the time in the dimly lit room.

She gasped suddenly and looked around in disbelief. She had believed that Sasori really would kill her back in the towering forest, and for the brief moment before she had passed out, she thought he really had.

Sakura looked down at her stomach, trying to make it out in the half lit room that she was sitting in. A partially-healed wound covered the very middle of it, with dark dried blood still crusted at the edges.

She placed her hands on the wound and pressed chakra into it, seeking to heal the more serious internal damage before she healed the surface. Despite skewering her completely through, Sasori had managed to miss all of the vital points and, whether by accident or on purpose, this was a great relief to her.

She didn't have enough chakra to safely heal herself fully, so she left the closed over wound as it was, after healing the only severe damage.

Sakura stood up to test how it felt while she was moving. A wave of pain spread from her midriff, but it was bearable. She shivered and took a few steps, deciding it was time to find out where he had left her.

A few steps into the dark room saw the slight outline of a bed emerge from the gloom. A bedroom? Another step and she noticed someone in the bed. She relaxed, thinking it was Sasori, and took another step towards the bed.

"Shhhhit." Sakura hissed as quietly as she could in her surprise. That wasn't Sasori, the man sleeping in that bed was blonde and his hair was much longer. What the hell was Sasori playing at, putting her in a room with the Iwa missing-nin, Deidara.

She backed up towards away from the bed as quickly and quietly as she could, keeping her eyes trained on the sleeping form of the S-class criminal. She took one more step back and collided with something. Something warm that grabbed her shoulders as she jumped in fear, a strangled half-scream escaped from her mouth as the warm arms embraced her.

"Hush." A voice whispered in her ear, a familiar voice that Sakura placed at once and relaxed somewhat.

"You idiot!" She hissed as loud as she dared, wrenching her arms out of Sasori's grasp. "What if he woke up? What would he do?" She whispered furiously, her head occasionally flicking to look over her shoulder to make sure he was still sleeping.

"I didn't realise he was still in there…" Sasori said with a smirk, a mockery of an innocent smile.

"It was a cruel trick to play." She struggled not to yell at him. "Take me back." She said bluntly. "Take me back or I'll scream, I'll scream and I'll wake everyone up, and then you'd be killed."

"So would you." He pointed out calmly. "And then you're still out of the way. And Naruto still dies."

Sasori was so infuriatingly cool as he called Sakura's bluff, and she fumed in silence for a minute.

"So you've gone from love so blackmail in so little time." She said, breathing deeply to keep her voice down and under control.

"That's how life is." Sasori smiled and brought a hand up to her face, running her fingers lightly and tenderly down the side of her face.

Sakura made no attempt to stop him as she relaxed for a moment. She had nearly forgotten how good it felt to be loved, in her years of loneliness.

"You…" Sasori whispered in her ear, one hand still gently holding her face, the other coming up to lay on her shoulder. "You should stay out of sight… Before someone… sees you." He laughed softly and a noise from the hallway outside the room startle Sakura, as she jumped back into the darkness, her heart pounding madly, trying to escape from her chest.

"I… hate you… so much right now." She hissed at him, her head ready to explode from all the contrasting emotions that she was feeling. He was being so cruel, loving her one moment, then turning on her the next. She knew what it was, she knew that it was all revenge, it was all because of her attempt to replace him with her boyfriend.

A slight look of hurt flickered across Sasori's face before it was squashed, leaving him with the same old expression that he usually had- smug, aloof.

Without a word, he grabbed her arm and pulled her out the door and into a harshly lit hallway with dark brown walls. Few doors branched off the plain hall, so logically the rooms must have been fairly large.

The building was also strangely familiar, making her shiver with that strange feeling of déjà vu. Before she could begin to wonder where she was, or what her surroundings were like, he yanked her around the corner and almost immediately into another room around the corner.

He stopped only just into the room and Sakura, still propelled by her momentum, collided with him, ending up with her arms around him and her head on his chest. Sasori put an arm around her, keeping her in that position, while using his other arm to close the door behind them. The dull thud left them in dark silence, embracing each other, before the light flickered on, bright and white.

Before Sakura's eyes adjusted to the bright light in the room, she felt his other arm go around her, and his lips meet hers. Her eyes went wide in shock but she didn't protest, another sign of her wavering determination.

She felt his hand slide down her arm and down to grasp her own hand, but ignored it as she focused on the kiss. Maybe it meant he cared about her again, that he'd take her back and just visit her at night like her used to.

A sudden coldness spread through her from the hand he was holding, and suddenly her rapidly disappearing love and even her hatred felt weak as all of her chakra, all of her power was drained out of her and into a small object on her wrist that glowed slightly in the bright room.

"You… bastard." She broke away from him and brought the hand back with the luminescent trinket on it, slapping him as hard as she could. Not hard enough to even make a mark, sapped of her strength as she was.

"Its almost morning." He told her, putting a hand on her shoulder so gently. "I'd be best if you didn't try to escape."

He turned and left the room so quickly, all Sakura noticed was the sound of the door closing behind him, and the grating as the metal key turned in the lock.

A tear escaped Sakura's eye, blurring her vision as she examined the thing he had put on her wrist. It was beautiful and delicate, as was his style, but evil nevertheless. It was a bracelet with a gold chain, thick enough to make her wrist look delicate beneath the bracelet. She turned it in her fingers and noticed the clasp on the other side of it.

It was a small lock, shaped like a heart, holding the two sides of the chain together. It was so symbolic to her at that moment. Love had her trapped, love had made her a prisoner and lover had made her its prisoner as well. How could she have ever thought she'd have the will to kill Sasori?

"Let me go!" She yelled to no one, not knowing who could hear her, not caring. She needed to vent her fury, she needed to hit something. She stumbled over to the door and beat uselessly against its hard wooden surface, causing only dull thuds to echo around the large room, accompanied by her furious and frustrated sobs.

Sakura paused for a second and froze, as the muffled sound of footsteps drifted to her ears through the heavy door. She flattened herself against the wall, hoping that if they opened the door they wouldn't see her.

But the footsteps continued on, passing the door as quickly as they had come, and disappearing around the corner. She breathed out a sigh of relief and decided to be more silent, unless she wanted to die.

She scoped out the room, walking right around it. There was a desk that was mostly empty, a chair in front of it, a worn looking rug to one corner of the room and a double bed in the middle of it all. If this was Sasori's room, then she wondered what her expected of her…

Did he expect her to share a bed with him, after all he had done to her?

She snorted in spiteful laughter to herself and sat down in the chair, looking through some of the lone papers that lay on the desk, leaning back in the chair when she found nothing at all useful or interesting.

She moved over to the bed and lay down on it, staring at the ceiling as the seconds lasted for minutes.

Was this what he expected her to do every day for the rest of her life, just so he could be with her? Yes, it may have sounded romantic, but Sakura was furious that he had so nonchalantly taken away her entire life, just so that his could be better.

She sobbed quietly into the pillow, eventually running out of tears to cry so she just lay there, lifeless, in a state that wasn't quite awake and wasn't quite asleep, waiting.

The sound of laughter drifted to Sakura's ears at a time that might have been about mid-afternoon. She had turned the light off, and a small amount of light crept into the room through a tiny window, high in the wall.

Sakura froze as the door creaked open, an ominous noise by itself, and two steps of footsteps made their way across the room.

As an instinct, Sakura kept as still as she possibly could to escape detection, her heart fluttering like a rabbits as she prepared to be killed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Deidara, coming up on the right of the bed, Sasori next to him with a smirk on his face.

_That idiot! How could he be so careless!_ She thought, almost screaming it out in her rage.

"So… You ended up bringing her back after all. I thought you had decided not to." Deidara commented, making even Sakura's madly pounding heart freeze in fear.

"I had to. She's too fine to leave in Konoha." Sasori's smooth voice replied, a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Have you told the Leader about her yet? You know what he plans to do with her." The amusement crept into the blonde's voice as well, and Sakura shook slightly.

"That's what I did today. He's quite pleased."

**Argh this took me forever! I'm killing myself trying to keep writing this and doing all of my hundred thousand assignments. And my cosplay. And everything else.**

**And now, it is your turn to take pity on a poor swamped little girl and help me out. Yes I know this is blackmail, but I have to do a survey of an online community and I can't keep writing until I get 19 or 20 replies to my survey.**

**UPDATE: The survey and all related assignments are FINISHED. Finally!!!**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH to all the people who did it!**

**I love you all!**

**s2- Envy  
**

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	4. Chapter 4

Nostalgia and Broken Promises- Chapter 4**  
**

**Sorry for the wait.**

**Heres the chapter!**

Sakura's muscles clenched as she fought to keep her rage under control. Not that it really mattered anymore, because of that two-faced bastard. She felt like shouting it out to him, and strangling him, even in her chakra-less state. But the two went on, and she listened past the blind roaring of hate in her ears.

Deidara's malicious laugh echoed in her ears as he continued. "It really is cruel. Trust someone like him to come up with it." She could just hear the self-satisfied smirk that would be on his face.

"Lucky she is already dead then." Sasori interjected, and Deidara agreed with a small grunt.

_What?!_ They made no sense. What the hell was going on?

"Is she a good one?" Deidara asked. "It seemed to have taken you a while to do."

_A good one?_ Sakura didn't like the way they were referring to her. She wished she at least understood what they meant.

"Probably my strongest." What could they be referring to?

"One of the best puppets I ever made." He smirked.

Sakura's jaw clenched as she came to a realisation. He told them she was a puppet? A feeling of cold dread spread through her as she remembered an earlier part of the conversation. They thought she was one of Sasori's human puppets, and the leader had plans for her. What exactly did he want the puppet-her to do?

She decided that whatever it was, it wouldn't be good. She knew how twisted the Akatsuki could be. Her head worked almost unconsciously, and a plan formed in her head, though again it hinged on that _if_.

For she had a secret, a new skill that no one knew she had, except for the members of her team.

Kakashi had always said she was the genjustu type, and when Tsunade decided that it was time for Sakura to become a jounin, she gave her extensive training in this field, the secret that became her trump card.

And if she could capture him in a genjutsu, any genjutsu, it was all over for him. First she had to figure out how she could trick him into removing the bracelet that sealed her chakra, then everything would fall into place…

They took so long to leave, Sasori and Deidara as they moved around the room, talking, plotting and planning for almost an hour. The things that drifted to Sakura's ears could take down their entire organisation. That's if Tsunade kept her alive long enough to hear them.

Once the two left the room, Sakura stood up to finally stretch her cramping muscles, as they struggled to cope with staying completely still for an hour. What angered her most about Sasori was that he so blatantly revealed so much of their plans in front of hers, saying to her so subtly that she'd never escape.

Even though he made her so angry, there was a part of Sakura, maybe her brain, maybe her heart, but it didn't want to leave Sasori again.

She didn't ever want to be as lonely as she was after he left her. No, it would never happen again. But she had little choice in the larger game that Fate played, oblivious to the tiny creatures in pain. What could she do to be with Sasori, short of joining Akatsuki?

A hot tear burned its way down her cheek, and Sakura wiped it away hastily as she heard footsteps returning to the room.

Sasori entered the room with a tray of food balanced in his hand, smiling at her as he shut the door behind him.

"Sorry for all that…" She was glad that he at least apologised for lying so blatantly about her, right in front of her. And at least he didn't disregard her completely, her stomach rumbled as she suddenly remembered her need to eat.

"I don't know how you do it…" Sakura told him, feeling slightly flat as though he had sapped her energy along with her chakra.

"What exactly am I doing that you can't do?" He put the tray down beside her and sat on her other side, close enough so that he leant on her gently. It gave Sakura a warm feeling inside, which, in turn, angered her.

"How can you pretend that nothing happened? You just pretend that it hasn't been three years since we loved each other properly. You pretend that the rift between us is imaginary, but its there, and you know it. You _left _me. You left me alone." She paused for a moment, unsure of how to continue. She was getting herself worked up about this. "You know I can't just come back to you because suddenly _you_ feel like it. I've moved on." Sakura hoped that her inner indecisiveness didn't affect her outside words, because she knew that she hadn't moved on, and probably never would.

Sasori said nothing as Sakura reached down to the tray of food to grab a stone fruit, nibbling on its juicy, sweet flesh half-heartedly. A small, delicate teapot sat next to it, steam gently rising from its porcelain spout to drift through the air.

With a wry smile to herself, Sakura took up a cup and began to pour the softly scented tea into the cup, but missed, and the scalding water flowed over her hand as she dropped the cup, yelping in pain.

The skin across the back of her hand began to turn red and blister almost as she watched it, and the burning feeling made her feel sick. But it was necessary.

Sasori grabbed her hand gently, surveying the spreading damage to her delicate skin.

"There's not much I can do…" He murmured softly, turning her hand so he could see it better.

"Its all right… Its fine, I can fix it if you give me a little chakra back…" She raised her right arm, fiddling with the luminescent gold bracelet that was stuck there. She had had a whole day to try and get it off, and it was going nowhere.

He took the chain in his hand and pulled the lock open easily, even though when Sakura tried, it wouldn't move an inch, no matter how hard she pulled at it.

She relished the feeling of power finally flowing into her limbs and her body again, she had felt so weak without it. She drew chakra to her fingertips, way more than she would need for such a simple wound. She held her hand over the wound and watched as the chakra manifested itself around her hand in a cloud of swirling green. The burning skin cooled and the redness receded on one hand as did the coloured chakra surrounding her other hand.

She held her newly repaired hand up to examine it in the room's bright light, then dropped it to her side, summoning chakra into her hands again.

Then she realised that there was no chakra in her hands anymore, or anywhere else. _Bastard… _He had already slipped the damn bracelet back on her wrist, while she was distracted. It must have been easy for him to see through her transparent ploy.

She sat lifelessly on the bed, eating her food in silence as they both contemplated what to say next.

"Do you really want to fight me?" Sasori asked after a long silence. His voice was soft as always, and his emotions unreadable as he avoided her gaze. "Do you really think you could kill me without my beloved grandmother to help you?"

His question made Sakura think more than she liked to let on. "Do you really think you could get me to heal you without your grandmother?" She replied coolly, hoping to unsettle him as he had her.

Another silence ensued before Sasori stood up and left the room, his cold echoing footsteps were the only sounds in the otherwise silent room.

"I can, and I will get you to love me again." He promised as he left the room, locking the door behind him.

"You already have." Sakura whispered to herself with regret. It would make what she had to do now so much more difficult.

She stood up abruptly to interrupt her thoughts, and started to look around the room she was kept in. There was nothing more to the room than she first saw, except a large wooden chest. A wooden chest that looked so familiar.

"Here?" She whispered as the opened chest yielded aged memories. That chest that had once held the many pictures of her was still there in that room. She was in the same room that she had searched, only three years ago, but this time she was a prisoner.

She rummaged in the chest and then closed the lid, pondering her discoveries.

"I'm still in Konoha?" She questioned to no one, and jumped when someone answered.

"Of course. We have such good access to Kyuubi here, why would we be anywhere else?" He was back, but she was ready, swallowing her resentment for that comment he just made.

She ignored it instead and, hands behind her back, she moved closer to Sasori, a pained look on her face.

"I really can't take it anymore. I can't stand it." She told him, all the while moving closer and closer.

"Can't take what?" Sasori asked softly, looking amused yet slightly confused.

"I can't take the loneliness, when you are just here, right in front of me. I want to… I need to love you again." She finished the sentence barely audibly, and as she was almost right up against him, she sidestepped him and went behind him, embracing him from the back, with her chin on his shoulder. "Will you take me back?" She whispered into his ear, wrapping her arms tighter around him.

"I… I will." Even he seemed uncertain now.

"But…" She hesitated. Her hand unwound from around him and fumbled around her waist. "I'm sorry." A tear dropped from her eye as her hand grasped a cold metal kunai and stabbed it into his stomach, something all too familiar to both of them.

Both of her hands were still around him as he looked at the wound in disbelief. Blood poured onto the floor from the wound in the skin, delicate and fragile as he was not used to.

"You may have taken all of my weapons from me." She pulled the short knife out of his flesh and held it up in front of him as the blood dripped from its lethal tip.

"You forgot to hide your own."

* * *

**ZOMFGSLKWFUUWRG!!!!**

**Sorry. This chapter took me so damn long!**

**STRESSSTRESSSTRESS**

**French and English and Maths and Geography they're all KILLING ME!!!**

**Yes. So I'm sorry for the annoying short and bad chapter that took years to write.**

**And THANK YOU IF YOU DID MY SURVEY!!!**

**Nibi no NEKO**

**iiMNOTOKAY**

**AkatsukiSakura**

**reader17**

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**I love you all! This one's for you!**

**Assessments, assignments and yearlies ALL next week, but I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. I have a long weekend anyway.**

**s2- Envy**


	5. Chapter 5

Nostalgia and Broken Promises Chapter 5

"W-what happened…" Sasori's crimson blood trickled from his mouth, and gushed from his stomach. "To us?" A tear fell down his cheek to mingle with the blood. It was the first time Sakura had seen such a display of emotion from him.

She started to shake with sadness and misgivings. Her capturing hold turned into a loving embrace.

"You said you'd come back. You told me to wait, and I did. I waited, and you never came." It hurt Sakura deeply. Deeper than when he speared her through twice. Deeper than when Sasuke left. Deeper than anything.

Then he came back. And it was so hard for her to do what was right. But she had to get back to Konoha.

"I couldn't. We were in another country, we were so far away." He told her, as his strength started to wane.

"Its just… not good enough." Sakura said. She was contradicting herself so much now, after their last meeting, she was the one who had said that he should go away, that they shouldn't be together.

She let go of him and he struggled to stand, propping himself up on a nearby chair. It just showed that everyone had their weak moments.

"Take the bracelet off." She told him, holding it in front of him. She suspected it would stop working when he died, but she wanted it off as quickly as possible. He reached up with his last bit of strength and unclipped it. As the beautiful golden trinket fell to the floor, so did Sasori.

Sakura stood facing him, a battle going on in her head as she was ready to break down. She could let him die. She wouldn't have to chose between him and everyone else in her life then. But she'd never be right.

She'd have to heal him, for the third time. And every one of those three times, she had inflicted the damage.

She lay him on the bed and her hands glowed as she relished the power that flowed through her, uncontained and uninhibited. She watched as it knitted him back together, the gaping wound in him closing slowly.

It had been almost an hour for Sakura, but Sasori didn't know this.

He opened his eyes slowly, to see at Sakura standing over him, frowning in her concentration.

"Wh…?" He started but saw Sakura's hands move quickly away from him and into a flurry of handseals. He had no chance to react.

She could have placed him in constant torture, or pain, as she was trained to be so ruthless, but instead she let him enjoy his time under her control. She made him believe he was still with her, and that she still loved him. Sakura wished this false vision really could be true. But she had to leave.

She delved deep into her memories to remember which direction she had to go to get out, remembering back to their re-con mission to this very place.

It would take her little over half a day to get back to Konoha, and maybe a little bit more to try and prove her innocence. She was sure that after all that time as a faithful ninja of the village, they wouldn't just kill her for one thing.

She hoped.

"Shit, what has that idiot gone and done?" The murmured voice came through Sasori's room as he lay lifelessly on his bed, and the other watched him.

Uchiha eyes observed him for a moment before Itachi's voice spoke up again.

"A genjustu? We must have an intruder…"

It was a simple task for the Uchiha genius to disrupt the justsu, and Sasori came back to the real world with what seemed like a fleeting look of regret.

"Did you see what the person who created that genjustu looked like?" Itachi questioned him, and Sasori headed out the door with little more than a nod. He couldn't allow her to get away.

It was easy for him to find her. Sasori bolted as fast as he could towards Konoha, stopping only occasionally so he could track down Sakura's chakra more precisely.

He first heard the sharp intake of her breath after little more than half an hour, as he spied Sakura ahead, out of breath and sobbing slightly.

As silent as a wraith, as a shadow, he slipped up behind her, going at the same pace. He got closer and closer with ease before he slipped his arms around her. Sakura stopped suddenly, losing her momentum and almost falling over as she came to a complete stop.

She turned around and backed away, out of his gentle hold on her, a horrified look on her face and a guilty one on his.

"I'm so sorry…" He said.

"What? Why are you…?"

"I have to." Sasori said, though Sakura wouldn't be able to hear him as she lay unconscious in his arms.

He slung her over his shoulder almost carelessly, as though he cared nothing about her, and turned back the way he came.

It would be so easy for him to simply take her and leave, somewhere far away so they could always be together. But he couldn't. Not yet.

"Found them?" Deidara was watching casually as Sasori returned, Sakura still over his shoulder.

"I killed them easily using my… new favourite puppet." He lied with ease, despite his inner uneasiness.

Deidara laughed, at the misfortune of both the imaginary assailant and the poor girl who had supposedly been made into a puppet. This was what made him such an effective killer…

"Well I'm glad I made her into art before you did…" Sasori muttered to Deidara before moving on, earning himself another snicker from the blonde ninja.

"Why the hell did you have to do that?!" Sakura screamed at Sasori, once she had regained consciousness. "No one would know! I was almost there…" She collapsed into tears, not wanting to talk to him anymore.

"I don't need to be here… No one knew…"

"Pein-sama wants you to fight as a puppet, against the Kyuubi boy when he comes on this mission of his. If it's you he's fighting against, he'd be distracted, and easily defeated so we can finally obtain the Kyuubi. And we can finally be together, forever."

"I couldn't love you if you killed Naruto! Don't you realise this?" Sakura shouted at him in despair, torn between her conflicting duties. Duties to her friends, to her village, duties to her heart…

"If you don't co-operate, I'll have to turn you into a real puppet. And then you won't have any sort of happy ending. When Naruto and his team get here, Deidara will draw the rest of them away while you and I fight Naruto."

Tears made Sakura's eyes bloodshot and red and her vision blurred through the salty tears. "I would rather die than become such a traitor to my village, and my friends." She sobbed, looking up to stare at Sasori.

Sasori's hand moved up to gently wipe her tears away, and Sakura turned her head slightly away from him.

"Sakura… I don't want to turn you into a puppet… Isn't something living and breathing so much more beautiful than a cold, unfeeling puppet? That's why I changed back into a real person instead of a wooden mockery. Please… don't be so difficult…" His hand still held her face gently and his eyes looked so genuine.

"O-ok… Just…" Sakura choked on her words before they could get out of her mouth. "Just don't make me kill anyone…"

Sasori walked away with a movement of his head that was neither a shake or a nod, trying to compose himself. It was the first time he had ever felt something like this. Remorse.

"Please." Sakura uttered before her voice dissolved into wordless sobs.

A tear ran down Sasori's face, dripping onto the floor and scattering into a million separate drops.

The end was coming, with such a stifling sense of finality.

Nothing would ever be the same.

**OMFG I UPDATED!**

**I'm SO sorry about this. Yearlies are finally over, and I haven't quite got back into writing mode. So sorry so many times.**

**AND its such a short chapter. Next chapter is the last. Argh I hope the ending doesn't kill it.**

**;; Does anyone else think its getting slightly repetitive, or is it just because I have to rewrite it so many times…**

**s2- Envy**


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura was limp as a corpse, she had lost all the will to fight the bonds that she had agreed to have binding her.

She had agreed to pose as his puppet, she had agreed to fight Naruto, but she had never agreed to help Sasori in any way with his grisly deed. A tear escaped her eyes, burning, and more followed, like a floodgate that had opened. She made no move to try and halt the display of her emotion, it would display proudly on her otherwise emotionless face.

She had given up trying to have everything her way. She could no longer try and keep all her contrasting allegiances intact.

She had to choose between Sasori and Konoha, and it seemed she had no choice but to choose Sasori.

It seemed like she was forced at knife-point.

But forced to choose the choice she would otherwise have chosen? The more she thought, the more she realised the true answer of this question.

She remembered the time following Sasori's disappearance. It was like a half life- like she had been offered perfection, a tantalising glimpse, before she had it taken away.

"Don't cry _ma cherie_. All will be well, after this battle." Sasori had come up behind her. They were the only ones in the cavernous antichamber of the base, where they awaited Kyuubi and his 'container'. The trap was perfect. It would not fail. But Sakura pushed such thoughts from her mind. Her Konoha friends were dead to her now. Or at least, she thought they should be.

A warm arm encircled her waist and a chin rested on her shoulder, where as the other arm came up to her head, lovingly, gently.

"I know you still love me, dear doll." She could hear his smirk though she had not the ability to turn her head.

"I… I do." She whispered back, tears still running unchecked down her face.

"Now now, little one, puppets do not cry." He scolded her gently, cosseting and fussing over her like a small child. He spun her bodily to face him, and wiped away her tears, making her promise not to cry anymore. She bit her lip and looked away- the sight of those deep dark eyes, so earnest and so _innocent_ in an odd way, was enough to start her crying again.

She was acting so childlike now- for her whole life she had struggled to be in control. Of boys, the way she looked, what strengths she had, what weaknesses. She struggled for so many years to keep her life in the straight line that she wished for it, but everything, and everyone was intent on pulling that line in all different directions.

And now, Sasori had his hands firmly on that line. It was connected to his now, unbreaking, joined forever, pulled towards his ultimatum.

She had lost control.

And so she just let go. She let go of her mind, and all she felt were Sasori's hands, up and down her arms, comfortingly, absently, lovingly.

All too soon she was startled from her sense of aimlessly floating. The light in the mouth of the cavern had changed, it was streaming in more horizontally, aiming for the very back of the rough stone walls.

Amazed, Sakura realised it had been hours, adrift in the sensation of Sasori's touch, and the absence of any real thought.

"Someone's coming." Sasori whispered. He backed away from their physical contact, yet the glowing blue chakra strings were still a bond between them, no matter how far he backed away.

Sakura let out a soft gasp as she felt a very strange sensation. Sasori's chakra moved through her, as he prepared to puppeteer her in this fight, the fight with a finality to it which tore at Sakura's heart and begged her to run away. But she couldn't. She was a lifeless puppet.

It seemed like a very long time in silence- they stood alone in the room, their chakra's mixed and melded.

Footsteps.

A figure rounded the corner, and Sakura gave a soft, almost involuntary gasp as she regarded the nin who stood in front of them. They had entered at the ready, prepared for a fight, but seeing Sakura standing there, plain as daylight, those ready weapons fell, forgotten, to the side.

"Sakura? Is that really you…." The soft voice ventured.

"I'm sorry…" Sakura's voice was barely even a whisper. She was unsure if it could even be heard. "Tsunade-sama."

The hokage had been put off by her presence at the Akatsuki base, and so she just stared at the pink haired girl in disbelief. She continued staring, even as Sakura reached into her belt, and was still staring a moment later as three of Sakura's poisoned kunai made their way into the famous nin's flesh.

She dropped like a stone.

As long as Sakura waited and laboured, she could not hear a breath of air escape Tsunade's lips, nor see her reopen her dead eyes.

Anger built inside her as she regarded the corpse of the woman who had been a role model and an inspiration to her through many years, even when Sasori had abandoned her. She had hesitated because she had faith that Sakura was not turned. She had been wrong.

Her anger rose steadily through her, not like a hot rush of energy, but like a chill, that filled her body with ice. Her eyes glinted coldly with this anger. Her ears barely registered the sounds of battle, in a location removed from their isolated pocket. She thought she could discern Naruto's own roaring battle cries, and wished him luck in his personal crusade.

But now, she had a crusade of her own. The tears that rolled out of her eyes were icy as her anger. As she collected her strength, she could feel Sasori walking calmly up behind her, no idea of what brewed inside his meek, naïve little puppet.

Her anger was sharp and brutal as a knife, and it cut through the chakra bonds just as Sasori came up behind her. Swift and strong as she once was before Sasori drew her life off course, she spun and punched him with all her might. She landed a direct hit, judging his distance accurately, and he went flying like a ragdoll himself.

"I asked you not to make me kill anyone!" She shouted, her words echoing back at her throughout the cavern, shrill and uncontrolled, and half broken with tears. "I pleaded with you, I _begged_ you! And now, Tsunade-sama is dead by my own hand! She was my mentor, my mother, my sister!" Sasori was on the floor, but now started to scramble and stand again. Sakura rushed over to where he was, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him once again against the wall.

"You will not even apologise, this I know. Because you break your promises, and leave me broken. No longer will I be the doll that is broken and abandoned." She was no longer shouting, but her voice was as cold and deadly as the ice which burned inside of her.

As Sasori struggled to breathe, she let go her grip, and let him slide to the floor. He stared up at her, poignant and still dignified and calm as he stared her in the face. Sakura's tears started again, silent and unacknowledged, as she moved slowly and gracefully, almost as a dance. Yet, this was no dance. She slipped a kunai from her belt, tipped with the same poison as that that killed Tsunade, and held it above her head in two hands. Sasori was still calm as ever. She thrust the blade down into his heart, and at once collapsed on his lap, sobbing.

"I… I love you. Always." She confided in him, as he struggled to stay alive.

"Goodnight, my cherry blossom." He smiled at her, and reached up a hand to stroke her head, before his eye closed, with a finality that even Sakura could not reverse. Four times now she had killed him, and brought him back from the brink of death three. Three strikes was all he got, as a breaker of promises, as a breaker of her heart. It was the ultimate revenge, both against him, and against herself.

-x-

Sakura cried until she was dried up. She had no notion of how long she wept, for Sasori, for Tsunade, for her life. For nostalgia and broken promises.

She cried as she snuck back into Konoha, into her old house, to collect the few things she wanted to keep. She cried as she fled Konoha, she cried as she fled the world she knew. She cried as she fled beyond the edges of the world she knew, to a place where the Akatsuki did not reach, where the people were oblivious of her own culture.

She settled, living alone, on the outskirts of a small town. But every night, she would put on a beautiful dusky purple kimono, scattered with bright pink sakura flowers, the colour of her hair. Every night, she wore her beautiful kimono and danced, in the centre of the town, for a crowd of fascinated townsfolk.

Long after she had died, and the bright silk from her kimono had faded beyond recognition, those in the town would tell a story of a beautiful love that was celebrated every night in a dance more beautiful than the stars that watched over it.

**2 years on hiatus and now its finally ended!**

**Its shorter than I expected, and I also deviated from my original story plan… But I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it made sense.**

**Also, sorry if theres any continuity issues. I haven't written the story in over 2 years, and haven't kept up with naruto in almost as long.**

**Thanks for all your support for this story guys.**

**s2 Envy**


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